Tom's Name Trouble
by Nepchoon
Summary: About Tom Riddle in school, trying to decide on a name for himself...it's my first fic, and just getting started!
1. Default Chapter

"Hmmm..." said Tom Riddle, tapping his quill on the parchment. "That won't do - not scary enough," he muttered, crossing out the word 'Riddlemaster' with a single, neat line. He looked at the next name on his list and frowned. "Sir Scary? How could I ever be taken seriously with a name like Sir Scary?" He crossed this off too and sighed. If he was going to become the most feared wizard of all time, he was going to have to come up with a decent name.  
  
But that wasn't the least of his problems. He still needed more followers...but at least he didn't have to tell his parents, on account of them being, well, dead. He pictured breaking the news to them -  
  
"Hi Mum, hey Dad - just thought I'd tell you I won't be home this summer. I've decided to follow the Dark Arts and become the greatest and most evil wizard alive. Oh, and I'm going to kill every muggle and mudblood on the planet too, okay?"  
  
He sighed again. Life was hard for an aspiring Dark Lord. He wondered if Grindelwald ever had this trouble...  
  
A loud cough interrupted his thought. Tom turned around sharply and frowned at what he saw.  
  
"Malfoy," he spat, narrowing his eyes. Lucius Malfoy had never been one of his favourite people. He was always following Tom; probably wanting to become his sidekick or something, he thought.  
  
"What do you want now Lucius?," Tom asked impatiently. He wasn't exactly in the mood for Malfoy's whining.  
  
"I...er...found out some information for you...about Potter,"  
  
Tom rolled his eyes. No one seemed to understand. He didn't care about James Potter and his little gang. Not a bit. Okay, so they annoyed him a bit with all their stupid pranks, and they just happened to be good at everything...but Tom wasn't bitter so it didn't bother him...much.  
  
"Okay Malfoy, it'd better be good," he grumbled.  
  
"They're Animagi," he blurted out, then smirked to himself. Tom sneered.  
  
"Do you really think I care? Who cares if a bunch of immature students can turn themselves into animals, when I, Tom Marvolo Riddle can talk to snakes! Mwahahaha!"  
  
Lucius took a step backwards. Tom knitted his eyebrows together in thought.  
  
"Or should that be 'Bwahahaha'?"  
  
* * *  
  
Tom was in a mood. Not just any mood...an extremely bad mood. His day had been a total disaster; starting with Herbology. The teacher was a very old and wrinkly woman with a face like a hag. She loved to pick on Tom, probably because of the time he managed to spill a whole can of plant food in her hair after mistaking her head for a giant magical beetroot. An easy mistake to make when her head resembled a giant tomato on most days.  
  
She had given Tom the largest Swiss Holly (which has a fetish for human flesh) to feed and water, and he returned with several swollen fingers as well as a three foot essay on Mandrakes to write. She had also made him re- pot six Mandrakes before she let him go.  
  
If that wasn't bad enough, he also had a detention from Filch for wearing black eyeshadow which, he decided, made him look a tad more evil.  
  
Perhaps the worst thing of all was that he still hadn't thought of a good, or rather evil, name for himself. He decided that a midnight stroll up to the forbidden forrest might inspire him a little, and set off, making sure to stay hidden in the shadows to keep from getting into further trouble.  
  
The cold night air helped to clear his head a little and he was feeling decidedly better as he reached the forrest. Until, that is, he saw the creature.  
  
It was about three metres in length, and looked a great deal like a cross between an elephant, a phoenix and a snake. In other words it was a giant snake with wings, huge ears and brightly coloured tail. And it looked angry. Tom screamed with shock at seeing such a beast, then screamed again for realising he had just screamed. He had to clamp his hand over his mouth to stop himself from screaming again, as the creature came, or slithered, towards him. Then it spoke:  
  
"Exthcuthe me, do you know where I could pothibly find a thertain Tom Riddle?"  
  
"Er...That'd be me. Why?" replied Tom.  
  
"Oh goodie! I am here to teach you all you need to know about becoming a Dark Lord."  
  
Tom had to stifle a laugh. 'Oh goodie'? But instead he kept his face straight and said:  
  
"Okay...What do I have to do then? And who are you?"  
  
"Oh yeth, I knew I'd forgotten thomething...My name ith Thandling. That'th with an eth. You have to take me back to your thcool with you and I will guide you from there."  
  
Tom sat down. "Sandling?" he asked the creature. "How am I supposed to sneak you into the castle then? You're way too noticable, and I don't want another detention..."  
  
Sandling grinned (well, it looked like a grin, but with his fangs it was hard to tell) and lifted his tail above his head. Then he shook his tail, making a soft jingling sound and he started to shrink. Tom stared. He was now about the size of a pony, and still shrinking. The size of a dog - then a cat - then he stopped at about the size of a mouse, and looked up at Tom expectantly.  
  
"Well then? Aren't you going to carry me back?" he asked, giving a great yawn.  
  
Tom bent down and carefully scooped up the little creature. Then he dropped it into his inside pocket of his robes and set off towards the castle, shaking his head in disbelief.  
  
* * *  
  
A/N - Like? Hate? Review please!  
  
Thanks to those who had reviewed already - I finally got the second part of chapter 1 up! 


	2. Noooo! Not the hair!!

A/N - by the way, in this chapter Sandling is still about the size of a mouse!  
  
Also, if you read the first chapter a while ago, you may want to re-read it because I added the second part to it, which is vital to understanding this one. Enjoy!  
  
  
  
"Now then," said Sandling, importantly, "You have to have a really good name to be taken theriously. Just look at Professor Evil -"  
  
"Never heard of him." replied Tom stubbornly.  
  
"Exactly. No one took any notithe of him because he hadn't taken the time to bother thinking up a good name. No matter how hard he tried to make himself known, it jutht didn't work because of hith name. You will not make the thame mithtake."  
  
Tom rubbed his eyes absently. It had been a long day.  
  
"Are you even lithening to me?" asked Sandling shrilly.  
  
Tom looked at the creature and nodded slowly.  
  
"Right then. We have to work on a new look for you ath well. You look far too innothent." replied Sandling matter-of-factly. "We'll thtart firtht thing tomorrow morning. Now retht."  
  
Tom was glad to be able to finally get some sleep and gathered his books from the Slytherin common room. "What about you?" he asked, wondering where Sandling was going to sleep.  
  
"I will thleep in your bag. Jutht make thure it'th clean."  
  
With that, Tom made his way up to the green and silver boys dorm, carrying Sandling in the palm of his hand. After placing him into his book bag, now free of leftover toast, he sank into his bed, pulling the curtains around him.  
  
'He wasn't that bad really,' he thought. 'Just a little on the ugly side…' And with that he drifted off to sleep, dreaming of world domination.  
  
* * *  
  
He awoke the next morning with a sharp hissing in his left ear.  
  
"Tom you lazy dunderhead - get up!"  
  
Tom opened his eyes quickly and turned his head. Sandling was standing about an inch from his ear. After giving him a deadly look, he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes.  
  
"We have to thtart on your appearanthe today. Make you look a bit more dark- lordish. It'll take a while, but I'm a patient kinda guy, and we'll get there in the end."  
  
It took Tom a few seconds to take all this in, and by the time he thought up a suitable reply, Sandling was gone. He stepped out of bed, immediately feeling the cold, and decided that a shower would warm him up considerably.  
  
About half an hour later, he was fully dressed and relaxing in one of the large green chairs in the common room. Everyone else was at breakfast, but Tom wasn't hungry. He spotted Sandling dragging a pair of scissors towards him, and his stomach lurched.  
  
"Not a haircut!" he cried. He prided himself on his longish messy hair.  
  
"No. Your nailth need trimming." replied Sandling, looking deadly serious.  
  
Tom looked down at his fingernails. They had grown since he had last bothered to look at them. They were now just past the end of his fingers, and rather dirty.  
  
"My nails are fine!" he said.  
  
"Fine ith not good enough. Everything hath to be perfect. And they are not fine."  
  
Tom snorted, but eventually let him cut his fingernails. At least it shut him up, he thought.  
  
Sandling seemed to be enjoying himself, and he started humming as he pulled out a bottle of black nail varnish from nowhere.  
  
Tom pulled his hand away. "No way. I'm not a girl."  
  
"But it'th black! And it maketh you look really evil…"  
  
Tom shook his head and glared at Sandling. A second later, however, his hands were bound with robe and he was tied to the chair. Sandling merely hummed louder, and started painting Toms nails, much to his disgust.  
  
"I didn't know you could do magic," he finally said, realising that he wasn't going to win.  
  
"Oh yeth. We don't uthe wandth though…Our magic is not unlike that of a house elf'th, but we are withe enough to actually uthe ourth."  
  
"So, what exactly are you?"  
  
"I am a Hindilith. A very dithtant relation of a Bathilithk too, but that ith not important. We are very rare, and almotht unheard of, even in the wizarding world. Now we must start on your hair."  
  
Tom gulped.  
  
* * *  
  
A/N - Thanks to those who have reviewed so far! Please review this chapter ^^  
  
By the way, if you are having trouble understanding Sandling, just replace the 'th' with an 's' when he speaks =)  
  
Let me know what you think so far - thanks for reading! 


	3. Anyone for thcrabble?

Tom, despite himself, was actually quite pleased with his new look. His hair was now dyed a black, so intense it was almost blue (instead of his usual brownish-black), and spiked with the best magical hair gel money could buy. His nails, though painted, looked extremely intimidating, thanks to one of Sandling's charms that made them appear like claws. He was also given instructions to wear perfume-free talcum powder on his face, and was given cat-like red contact lenses to wear. In fact, thought Tom, everything about him now looked evil. There was still one problem though. He still didn't have a name.

Sandling had suggested a fair few, including 'Terrifying Tom', 'Mad Marvolo' and 'Wretched Riddle', but Tom, as you can imagine, turned his nose up at them all. 

"I want something with a meaning," he said to Sandling. "Something evil, dark and scary too. . ."

"How about a thpoonerism?"

"What's that? Sounds like something you eat your breakfast with"

"It'th where you take the firtht letter of each word and thwap them round…so 'Tom Riddle' would be 'Rom Tiddle'"

"Rom Tiddle? No thanks," Tom replied. 

"Well it doethn't have to be 'Tom Riddle' - you could try it with different nameth. Like…Dark Lord"

"Lark Dord…nope, this definitely is not going to work." Tom scowled and tapped his nails on the table. 

"Then how about an anagram? An anagram of your name - that would have a meaning too. Let'th thee…Tom Marvolo Riddle….how about 'I am Mr Meldrotov'?" 

"Bah. I don't _think_ so," said Tom coldly. "I'd rather be called Riddlemaster." He threw Sandling an evil look.

"Wow!" said Sandling, sounding very pleased, "That look wath fantastic - I could almotht feel mythelf withering on the thpot!"

Tom grinned, and replied "I've been practising."

"How about a game of thcrabble?" asked Sandling, pulling out a large board from who-knows-where.

"Scrabble? Where you have to make words?"

"The very thame"

Sandling then proceeded to set up the game, spreading out all the letter tiles, face down. He then pulled a smaller box out of the original one and set it on the table. Tom frowned.

"What's that? I've never played Scrabble with one of those before."

"Ah," replied Sandling "but this is _magical_ Scrabble. The rules are basically the same, but with a few extra surprises. Now, pick out ten tiles and place them onto the stand."

Tom did this and looked at the letters he had picked. He got L, A, M, D, I, R, O, E, V and T. 

"So what's that for?" he asked, indicating the box on the table. 

Sandling opened the box and pulled out a very small squirming creature. It was about the same size as Tom's thumb (A/N: hehe) and a brilliant shade of purple. It looked a bit like a pixie, but a lot smaller. Sandling seemed to be struggling, as he was only a bit bigger than the creature, so Tom took it off him and set it on the palm of his hand. 

"That," said Sandling, after getting his breath back, "is a thcrabblett. They were bred ethpecially for the game, and thleep motht of the time. When a game is being played, they will help you think of wordth, and place the tileth on the board for you. They altho have the ability to duplicate letterth you already have, to give you an advantage. The perthon who hath the motht wordth at the end of the game winth. Thome letterth, however, can be uthed to gain more pointth if they are paired with other letterth. Thome of thethe include…"

But Tom wasn't paying attention. He looked down in astonishment as he saw four Scrabbletts climb out of the box and head towards his letters. They talked to each other in whispers, and seemed to be arguing about what letter to place where. One of them then started to duplicate some letters, by clicking it's fingers. Soon there was another M, another D, an extra R, two more O's and another T. They then picked a tile up each and walked towards the board. They spelled out (eventally), to Tom's surprise, 'TOM MARVOLO RIDDLE'.

Sandling finally stopped talking and looked towards the board.

"I don't believe thith!" he exclaimed. "You're meant to wait till we thtart playing!"

Tom stared as one of the Scrabblets shook his head and began rearranging the pieces. Soon he had spelled out 'I AM DRODELTMOROLV', and stepped back with an amused look playing across his features.

At this point, all four Scrabbletts began to argue. It seemed they all wanted to spell different words. 

"Thtop it at once!" called out Sandling, now quite exasperated by the little creatures. "Back in your box! You have cauthed enough trouble for one day!"

The Scrabbletts dropped the tiles they were holding and trudged back into their box. Tom replaced the lid and breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't realised how much noise they'd been making; but they all fell silent now, going back to sleep.

Sandling was about to put the board back in the box, when Tom stopped him and pointed at the array of tiles.

"Look at what they spell!" he cried "It's perfect!"

Sandling looked down and read out the four words. "'I AM LORD VOLDEMORT'…Lord Voldemort?"

He paused for a moment, trying the name out in his head. Then he sighed and shook his head.

"Nah," he replied. "It'll never catch on."

End

A/N: What do you think? ;)

Thanks to everyone who has reviewed so far! If you've read it, but not reviewed, then please do and tell me what you think of it! That's about all I have to say….except maybe read my poem about a young Remus Lupin becoming a werewolf - I'm pleased with how it turned out. Thanks!


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